In B2, if I defeat the E4 without first fainting the Swords of Justice, will they remain at their original levels of 45?

Question

I've gotten conflicting information about this question from different forums and sites, so sorry if this is considered a duplicate question.

I want to try and RNG manipulate for perfect IVs/Natures for the Swords of Justice, but I'll need Chatots which aren't obtainable until after beating the E4. I heard that if the Swords of Justice have their levels updated, their natures and stats will be locked to whatever they were at their original levels, meaning they can't be changed (if this is wrong, please correct me). Because of this, I'd rather get them at level 45. So, will they "respawn" at level 65 even if I don't faint them?

I guess another question I have is that if their levels don't end up updating after defeating the E4, will their stats/natures still be locked (again, unsure if this is true) even though they remain at level 45?

Sorry for the wall of text, I just couldn't seem to find any definitive answer to these questions.

Comments

IIRC, in one of my playthroughs, I walked past Virizion originally and caught in post-game, and it was level 65. I have no idea about your other questions.

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Bulbapedia says the level 65 encounter "Only appears if defeated during first encounter, and after the player has entered the Hall of Fame", but it's still possible that whoever wrote this didn't try running away and then defeating the champion.

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I just fought Virizion for the first time in the postgame, after ignoring it my entire playthrough. It's still at Level 45. My only evidence is a low-res photo of it fighting my L65 Regirock, a postgame exclusive Pokemon, but I don't know if that'd be good enough for an actual answer.

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@amethyst, I think that’s good enough. You tested it, and source experience is valid

Answer 1

After replaying White 2 and ignoring the Swords of Justice until the postgame, I can confirm they stay at Level 45 for your first encounter, no matter what. The same applies to the static Volcarona encounter at Level 35 in Relic Castle, and probably other encounters I didn't check. The only way for these Pokemon to reach their postgame levels is for you to knock them out and then defeat the Elite 4 for them to respawn.

Unfortunately, my only proof is this low-quality photo of me fighting Virizion with a postgame-exclusive Pokemon. If that's not enough, it's pretty easy (albeit tedious) to test it yourself by doing a playthrough and ignoring the Swords of Justice until the postgame.